This June 23 at Algiers airport, Saïd Salhi, his partner, and his two daughters are waiting in the hall for their plane to Brussels. They decided to travel light so as not to make the border police officers suspicious. The journey is a one-way trip, with no return. This 51-year-old town planner, originally from Béjaïa in Kabylia, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights is fleeing his country.
With a tired voice, five months after taking the road to exile, the human rights activist evokes a “removal” from his land. “I asked for international protection. I am now waiting for the Belgian authorities to give me political refugee status,” says Said Sahli. The decision to leave was made within hours.
Through contacts within the Ministry of Justice, I learned that I was on a list of 30 human rights activists whom the government was preparing to lock up. Said Salhi, Vice President of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights
“We wrote a press release on the use of torture in police stations and prisons against political detainees. This did not please the Ministry of Justice. Through contacts within the ministry, I learned that I I was on a list of 30 human rights activists whom the government was preparing to lock up. I did not wait for my summons from the police to flee. We had to choose between exile or prison”, describes Saïd Salhi.
In 2021, when I came to defend Hirak activists in Tizi Ouzou with a group of lawyers, I was arrested and arrested. It was the third time. The members of General Intelligence told me that I was under surveillance. Aïssa Rahmoune, lawyer in Tizi Ouzou, exiled in France
Aïssa Rahmoune, a lawyer in Tizi Ouzou and also vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, has also chosen the path of exile. “In 2021, when I came to defend Hirak activists in Tizi Ouzou with a group of lawyers, I was arrested and arrested. It was the third time. Members of General Intelligence told me that I was under surveillance. My family and I had to endure police harassment in front of our house in a village near Tizi Ouzou. Then I learned last April from a source within General Intelligence that we were preparing a file on me. This was the trigger for my departure., testifies Aïssa Rhamoune.
Fight alongside the Hirak
With his wife and their 5-year-old son, they fly to Tunis on a tourist visa. There too, the little family travels light so as not to attract the suspicion of the Algerian police. Arrived in Tunisia, the lawyer thinks where he could take refuge with his family. After obtaining insurance from friends, the lawyer took the plane with his partner and his son on May 6 for France.
Since the beginning of 2022, the government has attacked activists from the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights. This non-governmental organization was born in 1985, supported by lawyers from the Algiers bar. It is not recognized by power. The NGO then accompanies and fights alongside the Hirak movement. It takes stock of the daily violations of human rights. It is part of the International Federation of Human Rights League (FIDH).
Saïd Sahli and Aïssa Rahmoune, in fact, are not the only members of the NGO to be persecuted by the regime. “Three of my fellow human rights activists were locked up for glorifying terrorism or undermining national unity. They were sentenced to prison terms for three and five years ,” says Saïd Sahli, the human rights activist. “These accusations of terrorism are simply mind-boggling, especially for us human rights activists who were victims of Islamist terrorism during the dark decade (period of civil war, editor’s note)” , adds Said Sahli.
Accusing opponents of terrorism
It’s a trick of Algerian criminal law that always works for power. It suffices to invoke article 87 bis of the Penal Code to lock up opponents of the regime.
The power uses the trauma that was the civil war, the dark decade, in Algerian society to lock up opponents.Said Salhi, Vice President of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights
Article 87 bis, paragraphs 12 and 14 of the Penal Code, legally assimilates to terrorism or sabotage any de facto call to change the political system, to plead for a democratization of Algeria. “This article 87 bis is used to repress any form of opposition. They are clever. The power uses the trauma that was the civil war, the dark decade, in Algerian society to lock up opponents. There is no worse than the charge of terrorism” , explains the human rights activist. The “dark decade” (1992-2003) saw the military and jihadist groups clash for more than 10 years. More than 150,000 Algerians died during the civil war.
Moreover, the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights has many Kabyles among its members. “The accusations of calling into question national integrity are linked to the fact that some of us are Kabyles ,” confides activist Saïd Salhi from Bejaia. “The Kabyles were at the forefront of the fight and at the forefront of challenging the regime. We are made to pay for our commitment” , confides Aïssa Rahmoune, who defended the family of Lounès Matoub, Algerian singer and poet of Berber expression, assassinated in June 1998, cultural icon of the Kabyle cause.
The power seeks to dismantle the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.
Aïssa Rahmoune, lawyer in Tizi Ouzou
In a few months, a large part of the executive office of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights has been undermined by the regime. Two of the vice-presidents, Saïd Salhi and lawyer Aïssa Rahmoune, a lawyer, had to go into exile. Its former president from 2013 to 2018, Salah Dabouz, also fled Algeria . “The authorities are seeking to dismantle the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights. Three of its four executives are in exile. Three other executives are locked up and 9 others are threatened by the regime. The authorities have created a clone, the Ligue Algerian organization FOR the defense of human rights, subject to the regime and intended to sow confusion and weaken the real NGO for the defense of human rights”,explains Aïssa Rahmoune. On the site of the clone, the Algerian League FOR the Defense of Human Rights, nothing is mentioned about the state of human rights in Algeria.
No gesture of appeasement of power for the 60 years of the country’s independence
Human rights activists hoped for gestures of appeasement from the Algerian power on the occasion of the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the country’s independence.
In July 2021, the government announced the release of 110 Hirak activists. “We were hoping for a gesture from the authorities. That was not really the case. The repression has intensified. Judicial harassment against our activists is constant. Three of our executives were locked up for several months and then released to then be arrested three days later again. The headquarters in Algiers of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights is under constant police surveillance” , notes Saïd Salhi.
The Algerian government, thanks to gas, knows that it has once again become popular with Westerners and Europeans.Aïssa Rahmoune, lawyer in Tizi Ouzou, exiled in France
“Human rights activists are harassed legally. Justice is not independent. The judicial process is also used to identify and then repress people who support and defend, such as lawyers, Hirak activists” , confirms Aïssa Rahmoun. The time for the support of part of the international community for the pro-democracy movement of Hirak, born on February 16, 2019, seems to be over according to the human rights activist lawyer.
“The Algerian power, thanks to gas, knows that it has become popular again with Westerners and Europeans. Covid at first but above all the war in Ukraine closed this democratic parenthesis that was the Hirak movement. Algeria, a major gas producer, has again become indispensable and Europe wants to get out of its dependence on Russian gas. We prefer to say nothing about human rights violations. For example, the European Parliament had multiple resolutions against the repression of the movement the Hirak. The European Union is quieter today. The regime is in fact confirmed in its policy of repression. This was not the case just a year ago “, deplores Aissa Rahmoune. With a production of some 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2021, Algeria is the 10th largest producer in the world.
The Algerian government is today in a position of strength. He broke the Hirak movement. But the social state of the country is such. A much more violent social revolt than the peaceful demonstrations of Hirak is not impossible.
Aïssa Rahmoune, a lawyer from Tizi Ouzou in exile in France
The two human rights defenders have the feeling of having paid for one thing: having contributed to defending the cause of Hirak in the international media. “I defended the cause of Hirak on TV5MONDE, France 24”, confides Aïssa Rhamoune. “We, the Algerian League for Human Rights, alerted the international media to the arrests of Hirak activists,” explains Said Sahli.
How can the situation evolve politically? Do the two exiles hope to return to Algeria one day? “The Algerian power is today in a position of strength. It has broken the Hirak movement. But the social state of the country is such. A social revolt much more violent than the peaceful demonstrations of Hirak, says Aïssa Rahmoune. Saïd Sahli wants him to continue the fight. “I will continue to alert on human rights abuses but from Belgium.” The two exiles await their status as political refugees.
According to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, Algeria has 250 prisoners of conscience often accused of terrorism. Within this UN body, the United States asked Algeria to repeal Article 87 bis of the Penal Code used to imprison opponents.
